America’s Post-Partisan President

Barack Obama, during the 2008 campaign that led to his election as President, affirmed a desire to be our nation’s first “post-racial, post-partisan” chief executive. He insisted that despite conservative fears that he was just another tax-and-spend liberal, he would be willing to reach across the aisle to confront the country’s problems. He maintained that insistence, despite the fact that over the past 2 ½ years he has never proposed any policy or legislation that even gave the hint of centrism.

There was the automotive bailout, in which taxpayers wound up footing the bill to ensure the UAW would keep its membership rolls level. Despite assurances that the bailout worked, GM is rapidly heading for bankruptcy anyway. As of this morning, share prices of the company’s stock are down 47% from their IPO, and the taxpayers still own 65% of GM stock. As things stand, the nation stands to lose around $16 billion on this boondoggle. There was the stimulus program, with its nearly $800 billion for “shovel-ready” and “green energy” jobs. The shovel ready jobs were, in the President’s own words, “not-so-shovel ready” and the green energy jobs never materialized. However, liberal campaign donors like George Kaiser loved the plan. Understandable, since taxpayers hedged his bets in an unstable solar panel company with over $500 million; Kaiser has walked away from the Solyndra debacle with his investment intact while the American people are left holding the bag. So did public employee unions, another liberal constituency, since the bulk of the money went to saving their jobs. There was a massive restructuring of the nation’s healthcare system, with the highly controversial idea of forcing people to buy products from a market that the government will assume full control over. It proved so popular that over 1400 waivers were issued as of July 31 (there is still a week left to get yours!). Unsurprisingly, the majority of those waivers went to unions or companies that donated heavily to Barack Obama in 2008. Of course, the whole point of waivers may be moot, anyway: the entire package is likely unconstitutional, with the Supreme Court likely making a final ruling on the law next Spring. The NLRB is doing its best to stymie “right-to-work” states’ attempts at job creation; while Frank-Dodd ensures enough government oversight of virtually every financial decision to effectively paralyze the business community.

What all of this demonstrates to people is that whatever else Obama may be, post-partisan certainly isn’t on the list. The White House portrayed him as not taking partisan sides in those battles, insisting that the divisions over these and many other policies were the result of an intransigent Republican Congress. But the issue wasn’t really the Republicans as much as it was the Tea Party “terrorists.” The issue came to a head over the summer, when the non-partisan partisan tried the oddest bit of political contortion known to modern man. Still, most Americans understood the President is indeed the nation’s partisan-in-chief, even if he insisted on deluding himself. It kind of goes hand-in-hand with the job and has for every President, save Washington. And the nation was willing to give him a pass, as long as he was simply shilling for the Democrat side of the coin.

However, it seems the President decided on dropping all pretense of being “post-partisan” over the weekend. He finally has decided to let everyone know where he stands: as firmly to the left of most Americans as Karl Marx. In his new, post-post-partisan visage, government creates jobs, the private sector destroys them, minorities are the only majority and Republicans – especially that insane Tea Party – are out to cripple the country. As he said on Saturday, conservative policies are

“an approach to government that will fundamentally cripple America.”

So, the battle lines are now officially drawn. Many of us warned as far back as 2007 that Obama was indeed a socialist in Democrat clothing and we were ridiculed for suggesting it. With Obama now proudly assuming his mantle of Very Liberal Political Hack and abandoning all pretense of being a centrist, the 2012 campaign is officially underway. And hopefully, this time America will listen and understand that this truly is an epic battle for our country’s soul.